


Catalyst

by bluemermaid



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Headcanon, Hogwarts, Pre-Canon, Pre-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 00:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3402281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemermaid/pseuds/bluemermaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alice decides to chop her hair off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catalyst

Alice is in the loo with her head tilted back, a mirror floating in the air just behind her, and a pair of scissors in her hands. She feels like crying.

This morning she felt like shit. O.W.L. exams are in a week, and Alice has learned nothing this year; knowledge seems to leak right out of her ears every time she sleeps. Her wand doesn't want to listen to a word she tells it, she can't seem to eat anything, and every time she opens a book the letters scatter off the pages. Every girl around her seems to care of nothing but boys, and Alice can't see any of them as attractive at all. And to top it all off, Alice woke up this morning and decided she hated her hair.

It's such a drab brown, and it never does anything but lie limply atop Alice's head, straight and boring. Alice could never have wavy, shiny hair, and no amount of special-order shampoo or magical serum is going to change that. And so she decides to chop it off.

Only she's rubbish at it, and now her hair is all choppy and sticking up all over the place, and she's late for class, which doesn't even matter because she isn't going to learn anything anyway. Alice feels as though she is sinking into a bog. Her stomach hurts and her heart is heavy in her chest.

And then the door bangs open and a girl walks in, and Alice shrieks. The mirror crashes to the floor.

"Oh," says Lily Evans, with her lips forming this perfect little O shape, and her dark red hair shimmering in perfect waves about her face. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," says Alice, who couldn't be farther from "all right." Alice knows Lily, of course, because Lily walks through corridors with a halo of light about her. Lily is Head Girl and she's wonderful at it, guiding younger students and encouraging inter-house friendships and just being generally perfect. And she has hair that Alice would kill to have. Or even just touch, really. It looks spectacularly soft.

Lily cocks her head and gives Alice this little smile, as though she is genuinely interested in Alice's plight. "Did you need some help?" she asks. "It might make things easier. I find that everyone's a bit rubbish at cutting their own hair, don't you? But I think I'm all right at doing someone else's. I used to do for my sister, actually." There's a moment's hesitation, a brief chewing of the lower lip, but then Lily is back to all smiles and sunshine, and she moves closer.

"I don't know," says Alice, allowing herself to sound glum, because it's too much effort to pretend to be anything other than what she actually is, which is glum. Alice hates the sound of the word "glum," but she cannot deny that it accurately sums up her life at this particular moment in time. "I don't think it's much fixable at this point. I've gone far beyond magical means with this cock up."

Lily laughs, and places her hand over Alice's. Alice feels a sharp stab of panic at the contact, but Lily is only sliding the scissors out of Alice's fingers, and Alice immediately feels silly for her reaction. What did she think Lily was going to do? "Nonsense," Lily says. "May I?"

Alice shrugs. Lily can't do any worse than Alice has already done to herself. "Go to town," she says.

An actual shiver goes down Alice's back when Lily runs her fingers over Alice's scalp. It is ridiculous, and it is impossible, and it is beyond explanation. There is just something good about being touched that way, having Lily's hand on her head with her fingers in the mess of Alice's hair. There is a warmth that flushes Alice's skin. "I don't know why you've even cut so much, your hair's so nice," Lily says, and Alice barks out a terrified laugh of disbelief. "But it's all right," Lily continues quickly and kindly, as though afraid she's been offensive. "I can definitely fix it. Maybe."

This time Alice's laugh is genuine, because there is something akin to friendship in the way that Lily speaks, an easy, gentle humour that means to draw Alice in and comfort her. And Alice definitely needs the comfort right now. She looks into the mirror, the cracked one over the sink with the horrible stain in its lower left corner of something that Alice never wants to identify, and she watches, fascinated, as Lily carefully cuts her hair.

Lily's forehead wrinkles and her hands move so slowly, touching Alice's hair, pulling the strands tight, measuring and snipping and measuring again. Her eyes are narrowed and the tip of her tongue sticks out, pushing hard against her upper lip as she works. It's a relief when it's over, because Alice is about to pass out from lack of oxygen, and finds she cannot properly draw breath until Lily has moved away from her, to admire her handiwork. "There," Lily says proudly, placing a hand on her hip. She grins cheekily and ruffles Alice's newly shorn locks. "You look rather cute. Smart move after all, I'd say."

Alice's hair is so short that she may be mistaken for a bloke by someone narrow-minded, or of awful vision. If in a bad moment, Alice may have looked at herself and cried for her poor decision making, and refused to come out of the bathroom until she gained a few inches. But in this moment, Lily is smiling at her and she has called Alice cute, and Alice thinks that perhaps she does look cute. She spins around, craning her neck to see as much of her new head as possible. "Thank you," she says, in a bit of awe. "It's not horrid."

"If it ever was," Lily replies. "Really, I was glad to help. Come see me if you need any other assistance." She laughs and places the scissors on the sink, moving backwards towards the door. "I must get going, unfortunately, I've got Charms. See you around, Alice." She winks and is gone.

Alice stands there looking at herself in the mirror, feeling dumbstruck and strange and not at all glum. And thus fifth year Alice fell in love with Head Girl Lily Evans, and her lack of attraction to blokes became much less of a mystery.


End file.
